Effect of electrolyte on the surface dilational rheological properties of branched cationic surfactant

The studies of surface dilational rheology are important to detent the nature of adsorption film and the properties of foam. In this paper, the adsorption and dilational rheological properties of branched cationic surfactant hexadecanol polyoxyethylene(3) glycidyl ether ammonium chloride (C(16)G(EO)(3)PC) at the air-water interface in the absence and presence of electrolyte (NaCl) were investigated by drop shape analysis. The results show that the surface adsorption layer of C(16)G(EO)(3)PC behaves elastic in nature with high value up to 90 mN/m, which indicates that the slow relaxation process plays a main role because of the re-arrangement of long branched alkyl chain. The addition of NaCl will enhance diffusion-exchange process and accelerate the formation of film and decreases dilational elasticity obviously. At low NaCl concentration, the in-film slow relaxation process dominates the nature of film, dilational viscosity decreases with an increase of oscillating frequency. By adding more NaCl, diffusion-exchange process plays the crucial role and dilational viscosity increase as a function of frequency. Moreover, viscosity at high NaCl concentration shows larger value under higher oscillating frequency, indicating the contributions of fast diffusion-exchange process. The elastic adsorption film becomes to be viscoelastic by adding electrolyte.

Automated summary

This study investigates the adsorption and dilational rheological properties of branched cationic surfactant at the air-water interface in the presence of NaCl. The results show that the addition of NaCl influences the nature of the film and dilational viscosity, with a more significant impact at higher NaCl concentrations. Overall, the presence of electrolyte transforms the elastic adsorption film into a viscoelastic one.